Tuesday, December 30, 2014

I've really let this blog go to seed but thought it only good, right and salutary to at least post a list of the beast of 2014. After all, I might slack off but heavy metal never does...and boy have there been some rippers this year.

10.Stargazer - A Merging to the Boundless

Stargazer may not release albums with the greatest of regularity, but when they do it is sure to be an event worth remembering. I think Merging to the Boundless may be their best so far taking the Mesopotamian veneration of classic Morbid Angel even further East and, pardon the pun, merging it with the boundless guitar yowls of their countrymen Destroyer 666 and some unhinged tech patterns worthy of Unquestionable Presence or Piece of Time Atheist. I love the feel of this album and as usual the bass heroics of the Great Righteous Destroyer are noteworthy.

9. Old Wainds - Nordraum

If you don't know Old Wainds by now do yourself a favor, listen to this one. Have a good friend beat the shit out of you for not listening to it sooner, then listen to every single album they've ever made till you want to beat the shit out of yourself for the same reason. These Russians continue to be the unheralded masters of scalding cold black metal fury. What Immortal would sound like if they went less Manowar and more Blizzard Beasts.

8.Voices - London

Voices makes their second consecutive trip to the Beast of List and for good reason. London is a beautifully brutal, terrifyingly frenzied piece of work.

7.Mortuary Drape - Spiritual Independence

A lot of the big boys reappeared this year after a long hiatus and MD was definitely one that I was most excited about. I've had a love affair with these Italians ever since I heard Secret Sudaria waaay back when (that snare!) The Drape's ability to combine classic heavy black metal with historical occult themes gave them a mystique, and an otherworldly atmosphere that was uniquely theirs. The last album 2004's Buried In Time was quite good, but lost a little bit of that occult feel in favor of a thrash heavy attack and more modern production mode. I'm happy to say that Spiritual Independence has them dropping the modern tropes and concentrating on the things that made Tolling 13 Knell and Secret Sudaria so successful, mainly the dual bass attack, (occasional bass as a lead instrument!), and the mid-tempo buoyantly bouncing throughout the crypt groove that really defines this band and defines Mediterranean Black Metal as a spectrally sinister macabre entity. 30 years on and this crew continues to develop the sound that they obviously love...it does my blackened heart good.

6.Sammath - Godless Arrogance

Powerful, scathing and unrelenting black metal from these Dutch masters. Amazing that Sammath retain a level of catchiness even as their onslaught reaches a feral pitch.

5.Varathron - Untrodden Corridors of Hades

Another black metal big boy returns this year with an absolute triumph. 2014 era Varathron is much more Alexander the Great galloping through the colonnades than their swampy ritualistic beginnings, but the change in sound suits them well. If you want a metal album with a grand, powerful atmosphere this is the one.

4.Stíny Plamenů - Propadlé Vody

Blasting Czech black metal from the sewers, some of the quirkiest and most interesting riff-writing you're likely to hear this year.

3.Dimesland - Psychogenic Atrophy

This is hitting me right in that sweet spot between Voivodian futuristic cyber-trash, clinical sci-fi death metal and no-wave industrialized hell-scapes.

2.Arnold Veeman - Nait Meer

To me Arnold Veeman represents one of the most underrated, obscure progressive death metal bands of all time...Mon'strum. The fact that he is still putting out incredible music, but twisted classical chamber pop instead of twisted classical death metal, speaks volumes to his incredible talent! The voice, the atmosphere, RIO instrumentation, interesting arrangements, its all here in spades. More people need to know about this man and his visionary work.

1.Kenn Nardi - Dancing With The Past

Nardi does a hometown St. Louis boy proud. Even though I would have loved the hell out of a new Anacrusis album, I think this double album of Nardi's personal recordings is even better. Some songs hit on the symphonic tech-thrash that Anacrusis was nailing on Screams & Whispers, other tunes dip into goth, post-punk and all manners of introspection. I haven't stopped listening to this for over a month and with so much incredible material presented on this double album, there is no danger of growing tired of it. An essential and monumental release from one of the finest songwriters out there.

Janvs - Nigredo
Finally! A new Janvs album and I am just soaking in the Mediterranean flavor!Mekong Delta - In A Mirror Darkly
Incapable of putting out a bad album, Prog metal par excellence!Agalloch - The Serpent & the Sphere
Haugh & crew deliver on all fronts with this atmosphere laden behemoth. The rightful successor to Ashes Against the Grain.Neneh Cherry - Blank Project
Hip & Smooth. Eccentric Perfection from Ms. Cherry.

Trust - Joyland
As far as gloomy get your goth ass on the dance floor bands go Trust is hands down the best. Hell, this even gets my old curmudgeonly ass up and grooving!Laibach - Spectre
Boy this is a surprise, never been a huge Laibach fan but this album is scratching an itch...The Whistleblowers is a perfect gym-rat song.Master's Hammer - Vagus Vetus
MH most exotic sounding album yet.

Old Wainds - Nordraum
Totally was not expecting a new Old Wainds this year & totally am not disappointed.Enthroned - Sovereigns
The last few albums from these Belgian mainstays have really ratcheted up and perfected their personal brand of lethally orthodox black metal, well-done.The Great Old Ones - Tekeli-Li
Epic Lovecraftian at their core, The Great Old Ones keep the tradition of great French black metal alive.

Tuesday, April 22, 2014

"The Ku are those entities that have died violent deaths. The Ku's hieroglyphs have many meanings, the foremost of which is Black Magick. As an ideograph, the Ku is at least 3,000 years old, and the cult enshrines a system analogous to the voodoo mysteries of the 256 venoms used obstensively for acquiring great wealth and for vengeance. The basic concept is preserved in the Yi king where it appears as the 18th hexagram. Now the two elemental trigrams that comprise the hexagram are those of Earth and Air. Now the superpositioning of the Earth trigram above that of the Air suggests suffocation or choking, and the spirit/entity of the Ku are the vehicles of the Ophidian venoms which devour or suffocate the living on Earth in violent deaths. That whole thing of Ophidian venoms devouring is the 256 venoms, that's their virus, yo see its another stage of virus through occultism. In popular belief the Ku is a malignant honer of the dark and snatches souls from the dead. The Ku is in connection to the cult of the black snake, also known as the mystery of zombieism, which is like Haitian voodoo. Hence the sorcerer extracts the venoms from the Ophidian current and manifests from its extraterrestrial origin to descend and eat the brains of men. So that's the virus it's transmitting. That's a basic structure of what the Ku actually is."

Monday, April 21, 2014

damn I missed posting this on 4/20 but was preoccupied with gettin highwith Jesus and the easter bunny and that whole crew and eating those damn delicious peeps and sucking the marrow out a cadbury egg

Sometimes you just need some rustic in your face black metal and North undoubtedly deliver with their debut that uncertain gallop of Immortal DFM, that rural tremeloed upliftingness of early In the Woods, hell even that warm rich bass tone of Kvist fuck yeah....Go North young man

Friday, March 21, 2014

Mystical Polish black metal with an otherworldly atmosphere, put a mental image of Forgotten Woods slam dancing with Mortuary Drape in your minds eye and let that marinate for a while. Beautimous and Bewitching.

Monday, March 17, 2014

Since I'm in the Polish Black Metal Mode let me turn y'alls attention to the fine Poles of Gontyna Kry...practitioners of a certain Polish style that involves grim vampyric keyboards, obscure production, and obfuscated nigh on technical guitar riffing to construct songs that pull you into a perverse mindwarp of gothic torture. Spidery, grandiloquent and flat out fucking cool.

Sunday, March 16, 2014

In a major Polish black/pagan metal mood lately...lots of Graveland, lots of Gontyna Kry, lots of Profanum....so my memory was jogged to this early 2000's artifact, NS Satan. An album title thats so anti-pc that when I first saw it I automatically thought that it was ridiculous and awesome and I must have it. Basically NS Satan is the very definition of obscure, cruel (but sophisticated), misanthropic black metal, and my mood prohibits me from having it any other way!

Saturday, March 8, 2014

Monday, March 3, 2014

The one and only Swanö, Sweden's most celebrated autodidact culls a motley collection of covers outages intakes and bloopers worthy of any zippo reel...worth it for the Asia covers (theres 3 of them!) alone.

Tuesday, January 28, 2014

An absolutely incredible Finnish death metal band that is as unique as they are underrated...if they're rated at all! This blog would be a worthwhile endeavor if for nothing else than introducing Paraxism to eager young ears...link for everything I got Demo #1, Promo '97, Selected Works and Xism Excursion.

Friday, January 3, 2014

Kickin' this new years off with an outrageously awesome, underrated thrashing gem from '88. Progressiveness, technicality, wailing John Arch-esqe caterwauling from vocalist Ski and an overall sense of theatricality make these Jersey boys' debut and lone full-length a definitive classic of power-trash.